How To Clean A Meat Grinder In 4 Easy Steps? (Plus 7 Pro Tips)

  • By: Brendan

Just like other kitchen appliances you use in daily life, a meat grinder is also one of them that require proper cleaning. Whether you are using an electric meat grinder or the manual meat grinder, you should know how to clean a meat grinder.

how to clean a meat grinder

Even if you wash it regularly, many people don’t know how to clean a meat grinder correctly? It basically includes cleaning all the grinder components like blades, food hopper, grinding plates, and other attachments.

Why Do You Need To Clean A Meat Grinder Every Day?

  • Leaving it unclean for long creates a house for bacteria and germs due to leftover pieces of raw meats.
  • Regular cleaning prevents rust and saves maintenance costs.
  • Extend the life of the meat grinder and save investment to buy a new one.

How To Clean A Meat Grinder

Step 1 –  Remove stuck meat pieces

Firstly, take out the stuck meat pieces in the grinder. You can use forks, knives, or any pointed utensil to clean the grinder and its plates thoroughly.

Step 2 – Detach the parts of the grinder

Next step is to start detaching meat grinder parts from the complete grinder unit. Unscrew the possible parts; you can easily assemble them after washing.

Step 3 – Use warm water to scrub the parts

Use light warm soapy water to eliminate the sticky particles. Keep the grinding parts (Excluding the electric motor) in the soapy water for around 30 minutes. Meanwhile, use a scrub to clean it deeply.

Step 4 – Dry and store in a less moisture place

You are done with the cleaning part, time to dry them with a towel or under the sun.

Although it is a simple and straight-forward process but to make it more effective, we have revealed some excellent tips to clean meat grinders, let’s explore it.


7 Tips For Efficiently Cleaning A Meat Grinder

After using the meat grinder

  • Immediate clean: Clean your meat grinder immediately to prevent it from building thick coats that are extremely difficult to remove.
  • Soak residuals: Remove oil, fat, and grease residuals by feeding bread slices in the grinder. Bread pieces have good absorption power to soak up the residuals and prepare it for cleaning.
  • Save yourself from wounds: Detaching different grinder parts lets you clean it deeply and safely. Cleaning the complete unit might wound you from the blades. Make sure to unplug it, if you have an electric meat grinder.
  • Non-motorized parts: Don’t put the electric meat grinder’s main body and motor in the warm soapy water. You can clean them with damp cloth only, that’s sufficient. Placing the remaining parts in water is okay.
  • Mixture of water and baking soda: Warm soap solution is not enough? Is it still oily and greasy? Try a solution of warm water and a small teaspoon of baking soda to varnish the stubborn stains.

After washing meat grinder

  • Dry in sunlight: Storing the parts without drying causes rust. Make sure to dry every part with some towel or for faster drying, place them under some direct sunlight for a few minutes.
  • Storage & maintenance: You are done with the complicated yet simple task of cleaning the meat grinder; it’s time to take care of its storing. Place the grinder’s parts in a plastic bag filled with rice to ensure low moisture.

Lubricating with oil or petroleum jelly preserve the sharpness of the blades and promote smoother operations.


Cleaning kits for Meat Grinder

As soon as you buy any grinder, you need the tool to maintain its cleanliness as soon as possible. Delay might cause you many adverse effects like a hard coating of rust, losing the product shine, or you might end up buying another grinder.

To help with cleaning meat grinders, Grinder cleaning kits are available in the market. Such kits are useful to keep the grinder and grinder accessories clean and running new. Such kits include various cleaning brushes comprising different sizes and shapes. In addition, there are few dispensers and sprays to lubricate that helps inefficient working of the grinder’s parts.

We have found the LEM Products 686 Grinder Cleaning Kit really amazing.

LEM meat grinder cleaning kits have a good collection of brushes to clean all parts of the grinder. You will get a complete package of 2-1/2” diameter brush, 5 small brushes, 5 large brushes, and Silicone spray lubricants. The brushes are useful to clean stuffing tubes and grinder plates.

LEM’s kit doesn’t only clean the grinder but also provides a protective coating to make it rust-resistant. Just spray the silicone lubricant on the knives and plates and enjoy a rust-free experience.

The spray is absolutely food safe. Firstly you can thoroughly clean the grinder, let it dry, and after sometimes, spray at the grinding surfaces. If there is excess through, wipe off and allow it to dry properly.

You can use brushes to clean some other stuff, appliances as well. Overall, the right equipment is necessary even after following the systematic process of cleaning a meat grinder. And, here Thanks to LEM for providing the great tools.

Considering the kit’s benefit, it is easy to prevent the grinder from rust during storage. Overall, it is essential for safe food processing for grinder owners.


How To Clean An Old Fashioned/Vintage Meat Grinder?

Collecting and using vintage meat grinders due to their unique look and higher functionality is a great choice. But how do you clean them is a big question mark?

Here are our amazing steps to clean an old fashioned/vintage meat grinder:

Step 1 – Unscrew the parts

Dismantle the grinder’s parts to clean all of them properly. You can firstly remove the sticky meat with the help of some brush.

Step 2 – Put in warm water

Soaking any rusted and dirty utensil in warm water works magic. It helps to soften the particles and fall it off in the warm water.

Step 3 – Polishing

Use any scrubber or sponge to remove the difficult rust or meat residuals left at the grinder’s parts.

Step 4 – Drying

Next step is to dry the parts accurately before storing them in a low moisture area.

Step 5 – Spray

The last step is to spray some mineral oil on the metal parts of the grinder. It keeps the parts free from moisture and makes them rust-resistant.


How To Clean Kitchenaid Meat Grinder?

Whether you already own a Kitchenaid meat grinder or are planning to buy the new, you must need to know how to clean Kitchenaid meat grinder. The specialty of buying Kitchenaid meat grinder is you get the entire necessary cleaning brush accessory to clean grinder parts. It includes the grinding Plates, grind screw, blade, and Tray.

To make the cleaning process easy, follow these simple steps:

Step 1 – Disassemble the parts

Break down the grinder into different screwable parts. It usually consists:

  • A feed tube, pusher, and a hopper
  • Screw, blades, and plate
  • Blade and plate cover

Step 2 – Soak the parts in warm water

Pour dish detergent in warm water and place the parts in it to loosen the meat, oil, or grease.

Step 3 – Scrub the parts

Next step is scrubbing with a sponge to clean the blades, plate, and screws. You can use the Kitchenaid’s cleaning brush to clean the tube, hopper, and the plate’s holes.

Step 4 – Dry the parts

Lastly, wipe the parts with a dry towel to eliminate the excess water and allow them to completely dry. Before combining the pieces, make sure to dry them properly, else you will face the rust issues.

Few things to be considered about dishwasher wash:

Kitchenaid grinder’s body, plates, screw, and collar are made up of the aluminum and blades are of stainless steel. So, you can easily wash them by hand. Don’t use the dishwasher for metal parts.

On the other hand, parts like the removable tray, food pusher are safe to wash using the dishwasher.


How Do You Get the Rust Off A Cast Iron Meat Grinder?

Buying cast iron meat grinder is strong to serve a lifetime, but there are huge chances of getting rust on them due to their natural phenomenon. Once you have removed the rust, your meat grinder is ready to use again.

So, we have come up with a solution to get the rust off a cast iron meat grinder in the quickest and simplest process:

Step 1:

Use any brush to clean the scaly rust from the grinder. You can also take the grinder’s component apart, depending upon your grinder style.

Step 2:

Soak all the parts of the grinder in hot soapy water and let it sink from 30 minutes to an hour. If there is a thick rust layer, then add some white vinegar in the normal water. It will settle down the hard rust.

Step 3:

Now, it’s time to use some of your efforts by rubbing with the scrub till you start seeing the raw cast iron. You can also use the wire brush by setting it at low speed to avoid damaging the surface. Simply, run it over each part to get the rust off.

Step 4:

Once you have scrubbed, rinse it under the warm water to clean it from the loosen dirt and rust.

Step 5:

Dry all the components and your fresh rust-free meat grinder is ready to use. To protect it in future from rust, make sure to apply a thin layer of spray oil before reassembling and using it.


How Do You Sanitize A Meat Grinder?

Sanitizing a meat grinder at home is really simple by using bleach. Before using the grinder, using bleach makes it oil and odour free.

What you have to do is mix a tablespoon of bleach with one water gallon (increase the proportionate quantity as per your meat grinder size). Fill this mixture in a spray bottle; it makes it easy to spread.

Spray the solution on each part where you have applied oil after washing it. It ensures the meat grinder is sanitized and disinfected. Now, use normal clean water to thoroughly wash it and remove the leftover bleach, if any.

If you are looking for some ready-made sanitizer, then Star Sen is an indispensable and nontoxic sanitizer that can be used to clean the appliances, including meat grinder. It is safe and easy to use on your meat grinder and other kitchen counters.


Can You Put A Meat Grinder In Dishwasher?

Generally, grinder owners consider dishwashers are great options to clean meat grinder. But many have faced the problem of destroying and darkening the grinder after washing in the dishwasher. It happens when your grinder is constructed of aluminum.

The mixture of warm water, detergent, and aluminum cause the oxidation that spoils meat grinder. Although there is a protective layer to resist from high temperatures, when put it in dishwashers, the hot water corrodes the oxide layer and breaks the aluminum.

Once it is oxidized, it starts leaving the surface powder that has negative effects on your internal organs. It is to be noted that restoring the oxidized grinder and bringing its shiny surface back is difficult.

Kitchenaid meat grinders are dishwasher safe as they are made up of the stainless steel and easy to clean.

No, dishwashers are not recommended to wash aluminum parts of a grinder as it contains highly concentrated caustic solutions. Such detergents create spots on the surface and damage it. Further, it turns the colour darken grey. If it is made up of stainless steel, then dishwashers are good to clean them.

In addition, make sure to read the instruction manual to know better whether your grinder is compatible with the washing in the dishwasher.


Final Words:

Summing up, we hope you found the tips and process useful to clean your meat grinder. It is natural for any appliance to prone problems if you are not maintaining them.

Start cleaning your meat grinder to add more freshness in your food and store them in a dust-free environment.

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